Many audio and video products are portable. DVD-players, CD-players, cassette players, laptops, stereos, televisions and MP3 players are just a few examples of these products. Some portable audio and video products contain speakers or headphone jacks. However, when traveling in a car or at home, the user may prefer to have better sound quality or have the sound outputted from an element different from the portable unit itself, such as a home or automobile stereo.
Modulators are used to wirelessly connect a portable audio and/or video player to a home or automobile stereo. The portable audio and/or video player is first coupled to the modulator with an audio/video jack or other connection. The modulator is powered by plugging it into a standard wall socket or other source of electrical energy. During operation, the portable audio and/or video player decodes the data files stored on its internal memory and transmits the decoded data to the modulator via the connection in a signal format. The modulator then converts the signal received from the portable audio and/or video player into a radio frequency and transmits the signal for receipt by the tuner of the desired stereo system. While functional, this existing system and mode of operation suffers from a number of deficiencies.
First, existing modulators are not specifically suited for use in automobiles, requiring a separate power adapter that is compatible with a cigarette lighter power source. As such, the user must have three separate components to achieve their goal, the modulator, the audio/video player, and the specialized socket power adapter, not too mention all of the necessary connection cables/wires.
Existing modulators can not function without the audio/video player because they do not have the capability to actually read, process, and/or decompress the data format in which audio and/or video content is stored. Thus, for example, a separate MP3 player, DVD player, and/or CD player is required in addition to the modulator. In such systems, the modulator merely acts an intermediary between the MP3 player, DVD player, and/or CD player and the sound producing device, such as the car stereo system. The modulator can not be simply coupled to an external memory device, such as a CD, disk, USB memory device, etc, that contains the desired audio and/or video data files. This is inconvenient for users that typically store their desired content on portable memory devices.
The inability of existing modulators to actually process data files stored on memory devices presents an additional problem when the user desires to output audio/video content within an automobile. Most automobiles have only one source of electrical power, a single cigarette lighter socket. However, because both the modulator and audio/video player require a power source, one of the devices must be powered by a battery. This is undesirable because batteries run out and can be expensive to replace or timely to charge.
Finally, existing FM modulators currently permit only one type of output port or jack (RCA jacks, firewire or miniplugs) to be used to connect the portable device to the modulators. Many also require additional connections such as cassettes or docking stations. This means modulators are not available for devices that do not use these types of electrical connections. Furthermore, different devices having different output ports or jacks from one another require different modulators because the output mechanisms are not the same, i.e., if an MP3 player has a firewire output and a CD-player has a miniplug output, two different modulators are needed.
Thus, there is a need for an apparatus that does not suffer from the aforementioned drawbacks.